I'm still playing guitar and actually enjoying it. I found a nice arrangement of "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" that I can play and it doesn't sound horrible, at least for playing in my living room.

So should I make a video of me playing and post it here?

While you're pondering that life changing question, here's the next best thing.

I can't really give details, but we've got one other major thing going on in our lives. It alternates between adding stress and .... um, adding other types of stress. And upheaval. And good things too.

Since I can't say more than that, it's seems almost ridiculous to even post this much, but Miss Narelle on the other side of the ocean scolded me a few weeks back that people can't pray (I accidentally typed "pry" instead of "pray"! ) if we don't tell them our needs.

So feel free to pray. Thanks.

I thought I was having a heart attack.

February 8th, I was going to visit Mom in the hospital. Before I left home, I thought I felt a twinge of indigestion. Later, I lay down with Dylan to read him a bedtime story and the pain got a lot worse, then kept increasing.

Bev concurred that she should take me to the hospital, but we never made it that far. About a mile from home we decided it was more prudent to detour directly to the ambulance building instead of heading to the ER.

By then the pain was nigh unbearable. I don't think I've never felt that level of excruciation for that long a time. I was sweating, nauseated, my chest was killing me and all I kept thinking (praying?) was, "Lord, I can't be having a heart attack!"

I found out that when you ride an ambulance into the hospital ER with wild chest pains, you get a lot of attention! One nurse told me that she thought I was about to go into cardiac arrest. Another told me she was sure they were going to transfer me to a heart hospital.

It turns out that I have pericarditis, an inflammation of the lining around the heart. It's not really dangerous, but it hurts like crazy! There are several causes, but basically they treat the inflammation and the cause goes away on its own. It's not heart damage.

Sounds good, except that it flared up six days later. Although the fear of a heart attack wasn't there, the pain was back in all its glory! The kept me in the hospital for two days this time and put me on a steroid to treat the inflammation this time. Throughout this whole time, Mom was in the hospital and we were trying to coordinate her care with my  large group of siblings.

One other weird side effect has been hiccups - lots of hiccups! That doesn't seem like a big deal, but when the area around your heart is already inflamed, hiccups can be kind of painful. Lord willing, this will be gone with no further relapses.

Edit: I should also mention that my wonderful wife never complained that she had to spend Valentine's day cuddling with me in a hospital bed instead of going to a fancy restaurant. Isn't she the best?!

Kaitie and I are still taking guitar lessons. I'm nowhere near "good" or even "ready to be heard publicly" but it's cool to sit down and play at a song and it actually sounds a little like music. There have been a few times where I've had to force myself to walk away and stop playing.

Since it's been high drama around here the last couple of weeks (Mom, me, etc.), Mr. Guitar hasn't had a lot of interaction, but Lord willing that will change later this week.

For several reasons, I haven't said much about this previously, but I'm now the senior pastor at our church.

Our former pastor unexpectedly resigned a little over a year ago in a not-so-pretty situation. I've been at the church for 12 years now as youth pastor/associate pastor. One other man was on our elder board, so he and I stepped in and began sharing pastoral duties for about 11 months.

This has been an interesting journey to get to this point. There are so many experiences I could relate, but I don't know that it would be helpful. Yet I know I'm not communicating the immensity of this in my life. Being the senior pastor is a pretty awesome responsibility. In some ways it's cool, but it's also very intimidating. Our church has struggled for a while, but I think we're heading on a good path right now.

I'm still heading up the youth ministry too, so we're praying for a youth director. And I'm still working my full time job.

Maybe I'll edit this later. Otherwise this will have to do.

My Mom is dying of cancer. To my knowledge, no one in my family anywhere has ever had cancer.

Mom's been having pain and ill health for quite a while. In January, I took her to the hospital because of pain in her abdomen. Initially the doctors diagnosed diverticulitis, but as they  looked closer, they realized that there were signs of some sort of cancer. She was released after lots of tests and scheduled for yet more tests.

To make a long story short, she was eventually readmitted to the hospital where, after a roller coaster ride of diagnoses changes, they determined that her cancer is pretty much untreatable. If she were a lot younger it might make sense, but not at her age (76).

She's relocated to my sister Maureen's home about an hour and a half away where she'll be in the care of hospice. Mom's actually doing better right now than when she was in the hospital, but barring a miracle from our Lord, she'll go to heaven sooner rather than later.

How I thank Him for July 13, 1980 when she trusted Jesus Christ to forgive her sin and give her a new life on earth and in heaven. Mom was a bit of a tough case - she angrily resisted the Gospel for quite a while before surrendering to the Holy Spirit's call. But since that day, her life has never been the same.

There will be more twists and turns in this road, but I know where Mom will ultimately land - and that I'll be there too.

There's been a lot going on in my life recently, and though I've wanted to blog about it, I haven't really had a lot of time. I'm going to put up several different entries so that you can comment on specific issues if you feel led - or ignore anything you want to. After all, this is Xanga and you're under no obligation.

Besides, several smaller entries are less intimidating. I don't know about other people, but I usually just breeze through really long posts. Sorry to disappoint.

So read on if you're one of the brave and daring ...

Do you agree with the following statement: